Nickel-Decorated Black Phosphorus for Room Temperature NO2 Detection

In the rapidly emerging field of layered two-dimensional (2D) functional materials, bP, the all P-counterpart of graphene, is a potential candidate for various applications e.g., nanoscale optoelectronics, rechargeable ion batteries, electrocatalysts, thermoelectrics, solar cells, and sensors [1]. bP has been reported to exhibit superior chemical sensing performance. In particular, bP is selective for the detection of paramagnetic molecules, e.g., NO2, in addition to high sensitivity at a limit of detection (LOD) of ppb levels.[2] In this work, by applying a multiscale characterization approach we demonstrated a stability and functionality improvement of Nickel-decorated bP (Ni/bP) films for gas sensing prepared by a simple, reproducible and affordable deposition technique. Furthermore, we studied pos-sible electrical activity of these films for their employment as functional layers in gas sensors by exposing them to different gaseous compounds (NO2, CO2, H2, NH3, CO, Benzene, etha-nol, ethylene, Formaldehyde) in different relative humidity (RH%) conditions. Moreover, the influence in sensing perfor-mance of nickel nanoparticle (NP) dimensions in related to the decoration technique and the film thickness were investigated.